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We need to keep top international talent, but Trump spouse visa plan would drive it away

Sam Peak, Opinion contributor
Published 8:06 a.m. CT July 14, 2018

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A rally in support of reunification of separated families began outside a Connecticut court where lawyers for two immigrant children detained in the state are seeking a court order to get them back to their families. (July 11)
AP

Donald Trump's effort to 'hire American' is driving away international talent that powers US tech, innovation and prosperity. We can't afford to lose them.

Indian immigrant at a naturalization ceremony in Florida on February 14, 2013.(Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)

The rescission of the H-4 Employment Authorization Document is a part of the president’s “buy American, hire American” executive order, which aims to protect U.S. wages from foreign competition. But a closer look reveals that H-4 EAD’s termination would actually damage the nation’s ability to attract the very talent that bolsters America’s prosperity and economic competitiveness.

The Department of Homeland Security first enacted H-4 EAD in 2015 after realizing that skilled foreign employees sponsored through the H-1B visa were leaving the country because their spouses were unable to work. Two congresswomen, Democrat Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Republican Mia Love of Utah, mentioned this concern in a May letter urging DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to maintain the program. “Providing work authorization for accompanying spouses helps U.S. employers recruit and retain highly qualified employees,” they wrote in the letter, which was signed by 130 lawmakers.

Highly skilled couples consider leaving

Shortly before the rule was enacted, wait times for Indians, who comprise the vast majority of those classified as H-4 EAD workers, were more than 10 years due to enormous backlogs. Conditions have not improved. In May of 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was still processing employment-based green cards from 2008. Rescinding H-4 EAD would effectively force thousands of people to endure a full decade of unemployment as they wait in line for permanent residency.

These backlogs are projected to get even worse for future applicants. According to rough estimates by the Cato Institute’s David Bier, Indians applying today would have to wait 17 years to earn an EB-3 visa, the designated green card for four-year degree holders. But there are tens of thousands more applying for the high priority EB-2 green card for advanced degree holders. New applicants need not apply, as their projected wait times amount to 151 years. These backlogs warrant urgent attention, but in the absence of any solution, the H-4 EAD program provides much-needed relief to the victims of these endless lines.

Now with the program’s likely demise, families who depend on it are anxiously weighing their options. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Manasa Kokonda said she and her husband cannot afford to pay for their new apartment or save for their daughter’s education if they lose her income. She works as a software analyst, and her husband is a mechanical engineer. The Kokondas want to stay in the country and eventually receive their green cards, but if the administration rescinds H-4 EAD, they might decide to move somewhere else.

Silicon Valley software developer Kinjal Zaveri and her family are also contemplating leaving the U.S. Zaveri received employment authorization through the program in 2016, the same year she gave birth to her second child. She wants to continue working to help support her family. “With a single income I don’t think we can afford a mortgage,” she told the Peninsula Press at StanfordUniversity.

These stories illustrate how ending H-4 EAD would put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage. "Other countries are modernizing their immigration systems to better recruit and capitalize on high-value international talent,” says Matthew La Corte, immigration policy analyst at the Niskanen Center. “Blocking a spouse from working puts U.S. employers at a disadvantage to more generous offers coming from overseas firms."

America is falling behind in the talent hunt

A 2015 assessment by the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs from America’s top companies, reveals that America is already falling behind, ranking ninth of the world's 10 most advanced economies for “establishing reliable ways to hire high-skilled foreign nationals.”

The U.S. can’t afford to lose the very talent that drives much of its economy. In their research, economists Giovanni Peri, Kevin Shih and Chad Sparber found that from 1990 to 2010, every one percent increase in a city’s share of highly skilled guest workers was met with a seven to eight percent increase in wages for college-educated Americans and a three to four percent wage increase for non-college educated Americans. In another study from 2011, economist Jennifer Hunt found that immigrants who entered the U.S. on a temporary visa were substantially more likely to license or commercialize patents than native-born citizens.

In his plan to protect American workers, President Donald Trump is driving away the very innovators and entrepreneurs that enrich the entire nation. We can only be known as a country that welcomes the world's "best and brightest" if America remains a place where immigrants see a future for themselves — and their families.